Best controller settings for The Crew Motorfest

The handling model of the new Crew Motorfest is an improvement from previous entries. Although it is still an arcade game, the developers have made a great effort when tuning the weightiness and grip of the cars to make them feel a bit closer to a racing sim. For players who enjoy a more realistic or challenging drive, the controller settings allow a great level of customization.

Best difficulty settings for The Crew Motorfest

Before diving into the gamepad settings, there are a few tweaks we can make to the difficulty parameters. Some of these really impact our driving style and level of realism.

Racing Line

The Racing Line is on by default, but, although it may seem helpful at first, I found it was telling me to brake much earlier than I should. Besides, it always showed me the main road and it didn't help me find shortcuts. For that reason, we can drive faster if we turn it off.

Auto Braking & Auto Steering

While these assists can be helpful for new players, you want to get rid of them as soon as possible. They take away control from you, and they make you go slower.

Rewind

We all love to be able to repair our mistakes. I wish I had a rewind button in real life, but in racing games, I found that if I wanted to improve I had to take away the safety net. It is like riding a bicycle with training wheels: it helps you at the beginning, but you have to let go of them if you want to become better.

Nitro

Unless you are looking for a more realistic experience, you can leave this one on. It is very useful, especially to catch up with the pack after you made a mistake and you had Rewind turned off because Pro Game Guides recommended it.

ABS

Coming from the F1 games, it was easy for me to drive without ABS. However, if you are not used to pressing the brakes gradually on a gamepad (which is no easy task on such a short trigger), I would recommend leaving this on. What happens when you don't have ABS turned on is that the car locks its wheels the instant you press the brakes too aggressively.

Traction Control

The same happens with traction control. It takes practice to be gentle with the throttle and not oversteer eternally when you have it off. This becomes particularly challenging when you go off-road with a vehicle that is meant to be driven on tarmac. However, even for newer players, I would recommend turning it down to "Sport". This will let you have a good feel for the traction without frustrating you every time you go off to the grass.

Electronic Stability Program (ESP)

This system is effectively controlling your tires to keep the balance of the car. If you want to go faster and have full control of the vehicle, you should turn this off. Sure, it is much easier to drive with ESP on, but easier is also slower.

Drift Assist

There are three settings for Drift Assist: Comfort, Sport and Off. I run it off because I like that semi-racing-sim feel on the cars, but running it on Sport is a good option too. In my opinion, Comfort makes it too easy to be enjoyable.

Counter Steering Assist

This setting might be helpful if you find you lose control of the car once it starts oversteering. If you try to correct it and now you are suddenly oversteering the other way, turn the Counter Steering Assist on.

Airplane Handling Assist

This comes down to personal preference. If you find Airplane driving fun when it is challenging, you can leave it off.

Related: The Crew Motorfest – Beginner tips & tricks

Optimized difficulty settings for The Crew Motorsport (Table)

Although the Difficulty settings will depend greatly on your skill level and the type of experience you are looking for, the game shines the most when we can at least run it on the difficulty configuration below—this is only because the physics of the cars and the difference in their drivability becomes more noticeable when most assists are turned off.

Controller tips for The Crew Motorfest

Related: The Crew Motorfest Codes (September 2023)

Whether you are looking for a sim-racy experience or an easy arcade handling, here are some tips for gamepad settings that can help you fine-tune your drive.

Gearbox

Unless you have a steering wheel and a stick shifter, your best two options are sequential or auto. It is harder to drive with a (manual) sequential gearbox but it is also faster since it gives you more control over the car. It allows you to use more engine braking and also gain that little extra power when climbing a hill; whatever shifts the automatic gearbox can do, you can shift them faster.

Vibration

I would recommend leaving this on for the only reason that when the tires are about to go off, we get a rumble feedback on the gamepad. On races where you have pitstops, it is a great indicator that it is time to stop for fresher rubber.

Steering Linearity

If you find you are making a lot of micro-corrections to your steering inputs, you might want to play with the linearity parameter. The higher your linearity is, the less it is going to turn the wheel on the first portion of your stick range, and the faster is going to turn the furthest away your stick is from the center. In other words, it allows for precise small corrections but turns more aggressively when you are reaching the end of the stick angle.

Throttle Linearity

If you are not using Traction Control, a higher linearity can help soften your inputs at the early RPMs, which is when we need to be precise to get better traction. You can play with the Linearity graphic to see which setting allows you to have more control over the throttle input.

Brake Linearity

Something similar happens with the Brake trigger. If you are running ABS, this might not matter as much, but if you are driving without that assist, a higher linearity can stop you from locking the tires by going too hard on the input.

Deadzone

This is a parameter we can adjust for the Steering, Throttle and Brake settings. What Deadzone means is that the first degrees of inclination of the steering stick, or the first millimeters of pressing on the brake or throttle trigger, won't count as input. This is most useful when your controller is old or has a defect and gives a slight constant input even when not pressed. If that is not the case with your gamepad, I would recommend leaving it at zero.

Highest

Whenever this shows up beneath Steering, Throttle or Brake, what this does is it restricts the range of your trigger or stick. If you reduce the range of movement needing to steer, for example, you will have a more aggressive turning curve. Unless your gamepad has some defect, I would always leave this at 100.

For more information on The Crew Motorfest, check out The Crew Motorfest – Release Date, platforms, free trial, & more! on Pro Game Guides.